Use the Gifts God
Gives

last Testament of Monsignor John J. Egan

published in the National Catholic Reporter,
June 1, 2001

I am 84 years of age, and as seminarian and priest have served the
Catholic church and the Chicago archdiocese for 66 years. I look back at my
life with gratitude for the great mentors I had and for the opportunities I was
given -- to work in marriage education, in ecumenical affairs, in race
relations, in social justice, in community organizing, and as a pastor -- in
serving the needs of a great city and its people. In most of these positions, I
was able to assess problems as I saw them and to propose solutions and
remedies.

Now at this late point in life, I look at my church and I am troubled.
I see a great incongruity, and I feel I must speak out. Why are we not using to
the fullest the gifts and talents of women who constitute the majority of our
membership throughout the world? I realize that even to raise aspects of this
question, I label myself a dissenter -- for the present church leadership sees
no reason to change or even to ask this question. Yet prayerful, responsible
dissent has always played a role in the church; it is part of who we are, who
we have always been, who we need to be.

The position of women in society has changed radically because they are
now seen almost universally as equal, no longer subservient, inferior beings.
When I was born, women were just beginning to get the right to vote. Today they
are heads of their own companies, chief administrators of hospitals, presidents
of nations. Yet in my church at a time of real need, women are still invisible
in positions where they could contribute the most.

Recently amid great celebration, Pope John Paul II elevated 44 men from
all over the world to the rank of cardinal. Yet for all the ceremony, they have
one mission -- and only one -- and that is to assemble in Rome when the Holy
Father dies to select a new pope. This new pope will make decisions that affect
the universal church, the majority of whose members are women. Is it so
farfetched to have some distinguished and competent women in this conclave of
men? Are there any theological reasons against such a bold step -- or is there
only the tired reply that we never did it that way before.

In early March, my archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, gave a retreat
to the pope and some 160 members of the Vatican curia. I was proud that he was
chosen for such a task. The men in the curia are the people on the inside; they
control the workings of this immense church; their decisions affect millions.
Couldn't the curia benefit greatly from the insight and wisdom some
distinguished women would bring to their important discussions as equals?

Now to address the most sensitive matter regarding women in the Roman
Catholic Church. As just about everyone knows, we are in a period of crisis
because of the decline of male clergy in the United States, in Europe, South
America and elsewhere. I have come to believe the church must consider the
ordaining of women (and most certainly married men) as priests in order to meet
an essential need that is not being met. I say this because of Pope John Paul's
repeated insistence, reflecting the Vatican II decree on the sacred liturgy,
that the primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is the
liturgy, the Eucharist, the Mass. If this is the source and it cannot be
obtained because of the priest shortage, then the true Christian spirit is
lost. And this is a disaster.

In the Chicago archdiocese in 1999, we lost 31 priests in death and 20
more through retirement. In that same year, just six priests were ordained for
the archdiocese. To the best of my knowledge, in the New York archdiocese, five
priests were ordained in 2000; in San Francisco, one; in Los Angeles, seven; in
Detroit, five; in Boston, 11; in San Antonio, three; in Davenport, two; in
Newark, 11 (only one of whom was native to Newark; of the 10, nine will serve a
special movement); in Washington, four.

Last year for the first time, the U.S. bishops at their meeting
formally looked at the problem of fewer priests. A study they commissioned
showed that between 1950 and 2000, the U.S. Catholic population increased by
107 percent, while the total number of priests grew by only 6 percent. The
average age of the present priest population is about 60. Right now, there are
far more priests over 90 years of age than under 30.

The result is that 15 percent of the parishes in the country do not
have their own resident priest pastor. I'm aware of the great number of
laypersons (both men and women), of sisters and of deacons (men only), who have
come forward to serve the needs of our parishioners. Their emergence speaks
volumes about the good will and generosity of our people. But in Catholic
theology and practice, only an ordained priest can celebrate Mass -- the
primary source of the Christian spirit. So the Mass is becoming less and less
available.

I find it interesting that the bishops at their meeting considered the
use of foreign priests to fill the gap. Such a solution is unrealistic. The
areas from which these priests are recruited all have larger numbers of
Catholics per priest than we have in this country. Are we going to import
priests from Africa, Asia and South America to the detriment of Catholics
living in these needy areas?

Are we even taking into consideration the cultural adjustment and
competency levels in the English language required of such foreign priests? In
addition, foreign priests simply do not understand how to navigate the
governmental and neighborhood structures in our society. Today's parish
requires that the priest be able to relate to the whole community.

Despite the good will of these men from foreign lands, such importation
is not the answer to the crisis.

The bishops study did not even mention the ordination of women or
married men as a possibility, and the two or three bishops who raised this
question in the general discussion were met with stony silence. In the early
church, women served as deacons, and there may be evidence they even presided
at what we now call celebrations of the Mass. Tradition does not stop at a
designated point in history; it embraces the present also. And we are fortunate
to live in this era when women's equality with men has at last come to be
recognized as a God-given truth.

It is time to present this matter to a wide audience in order to learn
the sense of the larger church. The arguments that women cannot be ordained
because Jesus selected only men to be his first apostles or because tradition
has restricted the priesthood exclusively to men are no longer persuasive to
the majority of Catholics. They are no longer persuasive to many theologians,
and perhaps to many bishops.

Even if there were no shortage of priests, even if we had an
overabundance of quality male priests, the Catholic church would still be
required to rethink its exclusion of women from Holy Orders. It's not just a
question of using women to fill in during an emergency. It is a matter, I
believe, of social justice that all Catholics must come to terms with.

At 84 I have not retired, but realize I have a limited number of years
left to serve. A great part of my priesthood has involved working with other
religious bodies on thorny problems of justice -- social, economic, political.
Now, I have to ask our church to open its eyes and lift its voice on behalf of
another justice issue -- the church's commitment to the broadest possible
inclusion of women in positions of leadership and authority in the church,
including further study and discussion of the ordination of women.

The church has the obligation to use all the gifts God has given it to
fulfill its mission. My plea and prayer on behalf of the church I deeply love
is to affirm this commitment and to act upon it.

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